Dear Tweeters,

On Friday (4-8-05) my son and I got to see a pair of
Lesser Goldfinches at the "Stonehenge" War Memorial in
Klickitat County. It was the first time I had set foot
in that county, so I don't know if that is a known
spot for them. The male was flying around the trees
near the gift shop and signing.

On the same trip, at Moses Coulee we saw two ground
squirrels of some sort. They were looking down at us
from the top of the east cliff, near a metal barn by
the highway. Do any Tweeters out there know what
species of ground squirrel is expected there?

Oh, here is another question. At Alta Lake State Park,
we heard an owl of some sort. It seems too early for
Flammulated Owls, a species I have not heard in years.
However, to me it sounded like either that species or
the Northern Pygmy Owl. The thing was, the toots were
coming a lot faster than they usually do in Skagit and
Whatcom County, where I usually see NOPO. Also, the
calls started well after dark (2115). I don't ever
recall hearing NOPO that long after nightfall--they
always seem to call in the late afternoon and evening,
more crepuscular than nocturnal. The calls could be
described as a contant "poop, poop, poop," more than
once a second. They did not vary in pitch and rhythm
in the usual manner of Northern Saw-whet Owls.

Other fun birds we found on the trip included a
Rough-legged Hawk on the Waterville Plateau, about
1500 Sandhill Cranes at Scootenay Reservoir, and lots
of White-throated Swifts above Lake Lenore.


Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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